I have already beaten these two videogames so
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I Was a Teenage ExocoloistThis was a game I randomly found in the wild, I went into it completely blind, and I enjoyed it quite a bit
Exocolonist is about you traveling to a far away planet to form a colony on it and growing up inside the colony, the gameplay is like a CPRG where there is just text and then you can say different things, some actions requiring a small minigame to be performed.
The game is pretty engaging, this is a game that never ever feels frustrating or boring, so it's very easy to just play it for prolonged periods of time, I think the actual "growing up" mechanics works very well, in many ways, a lot of the things I did in the videogame kinda mirrored what I did in the actual real world, at the start, I did the things that I would enjoy more, I took the classes I of subjects I liked and didn't give it much thought about it, but then I met people I wanted to be around with, so then I started planifying my schedules and decisions around them, but then we all grew up and their personality changed so I became friends with this other group of people and etc
That playstyle the game subconsciously put me in felt realistic, I could relate to the events happening on screen, and that pulled me really hard into the game
The actual way romance is gamified is also top notch, in most videogames only you can make romantic advances, to get into a relationship you just need to talk to that character a whole lot and then a events pop up and now you have another NPC living in your home, romance in exocolonist gives the final say to the other person, not you, the player. The way romance works in exocolonist is that you increase your relationship with a certain person to an unspecified ammount, flirt with them an unspecified ammount, and after an unspecified ammount of time happens the other character may approach you and maybe ask you out, but then, if you flirted to another character they may be aware of that and that may harm your relationship with both of them.
After you start going on with someone, you still don't have full authority like in many other games, the other character may break up with you for things like your future plans deviating, the romance system in exocolonist is WAY more complex than in many other games, since it understands romance is not just a event, it's not something that happens, it's a process that entails many different things, it's more accurate to the real world and in many ways, it being so complex and often requiring so much from the player will make the relationship actually grow stronger, you feel a stronger attachement to that character now that you've gone through all of that compared than if it was like any other videogame
thing is, there is also a sideplot about monsters in the planet and that sort of stuff, a sideplot that you can just ignore, kinda like what I did. Things in this game happens if you're there or not, and I just decided not to be there, problem is that I accidently kinda did things that made the situation worse and I got a bad ending, I felt responsable for this and pretty sad, so, I did something that I almost never do in any videogame, I launched up a second playthrough
The game was 90% dialogue and I had already read a good chunk of it, so everything I had already read I could skip, leading to a much faster second playthrough, but, the game has a small little mechanic that I didn't know existed
The game remembers your previous playthroughs, your character remembers your previous playthroughs, the character has the knowledge of the entire plot and they can now change things, this kinda impacted me as I just was trying to fix my mistakes due to emmotional attachement, I didn't realize me feeling like that was an intended part of the game
In the second playthrough I went full in on that sideplot, and I was able to learn a lot more, I got an ending I was comfortable with, but again, I knew the situation could probably even better, so... why not play the entire game once again as I slowly become an omnipotent god in the universe of this videogame but like I did not do a third playthrough I realized that if I did any more playthroughs this game was going to consume my soul and probably social life so I contained myself
I looked online and it turns out that you're meant to have the "best" ending after like the 5th playthrough, this is really good design. In most games that have multiple endings or routes, in order for me to go back and actually do them, I either have to read about them online and get interested enough, or for the game itself to tell me that I could have done things differently, exocolonist is the only game were I restarted out of my own volition and was rewarded for it.
As I say you have already reached a good ending by the second playthrough, it's your own obsession and it's your own mind telling you to do it all again once again, the game isn't really pushing you to do this in any way you would notice, so whenever you do end up finding something, it's YOU who found it, it's your own doing, and that feels greatso yeah, exocolonist, good game, I recommend it, A rank.
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Death StrandingI love death stranding, so far, my ranking of kojima games is the following
MGS2 > Death Stranding > MGS3 > MGS1 > Tokimeki Memorial (still have to play MGS4, MGS5, and snatcher)
Death Stranding is a game where you fulfill your lifelong dream of being a amazon delivery person during the apocalypse. The gameplay loop consists of you picking up cargo and having to deliver it somewhere, at the start you will be doing by foot, and the game makes sure it's uncomfortable as fuck. You will sway from to side to side, the terrain will never be flat because fuck you and also there are like ghosts that want to fuck you over and also random guys that want to fuck you over and also the climate wants to fuck you over and also your cargo wants to fuck you over until you get access to vehicles which are nice for a little while until you realize oh yeah the terrain is not FLAT I can't drive this fucking truck up the mountain i'm just going to kill myself actually at this point
Playing this game takes willpower., it's not hard, but it's like really annoying, but annoying in just the right way. The game never really actually retracts progress from you, it just makes sure that you don't make a lot of it, but whenever you have achieved something, that is staying. You're not losing maximum health or XP like in some other videogames. This motivates you, since you know you can accomplish it, that anyone can if they just have the determination, you never go get into a point where you go "oh like I honestly should just start savescumming or just start over since I fucked my playthrough", it's slow, but you end up getting somewhere
And for all the frustration this games throws your way, occasionally there will be moments that will make it all feel worth it, you've done the hardest part of the journey, you feel mentally exhausted, and then, a low roar song randomly kicks in and you just see the scenary and god it's GOOD
the OST death stranding has is unreal, as along with some songs from other artists, it takes the album "0" and Once in a Long, Long While" from low roar, and it just turns out, that low roar makes BANGER songs which are somehow elevated by the game and the struggle you must go through
I would say the game is worth it to play just for those small moments alone, but these aren't the only moments when death stranding truly makes it feel like everything so far has been worth it. There was a moment in the game where I unlocked a bike, I tried it out, and it went fast, very fast, and just blazing through all the terrain that had been giving you so much problems before at that speed just feels apotheosic, of course after a while you will fidnd something you cant do with the bike, but the moments you can use it, it will be so fun.
Recently I criticized GTA IV for having shit driving mechanicos that didn't feel me cool while driving it, death stranding had a few moments where I felt really cool.
Death stranding is a game that wants you to beat it even if it is as unwelcoming as it seems, the story overly complex and convoluted like any kojima game but the general idea is that you must connect all of america, you're basically setting up internet connections, the gameplay does really encapsulate this idea very well, as during the game you can place little things like ladders or rope that help you traverse, thing is, you can see the structures other players placed, and other players can see the ones that you placed, so in a way, yes, the game is frustrating, but you're all in this together, it's a group effort, and everyone knows that by the end it will all be so, so worth it.
I really love death stranding, I will play 2 whenever it comes out, even if i'm a little bit worried that the OST won't be as good due to low roar passing away.
Placed in A rank
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next: Road 96
started watching armitage III, so far it's nice
